1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to a cubist puzzle game playable with a set of geometric pieces and a deck of playing cards each displaying a reproduction of a cubist figure to be recreated by interfitting the pieces, and more particularly to a compact cartridge for housing both the set of pieces and the deck of playing cards.
2. Status of Prior Art
Puzzle games are known which provide a player with a set of pieces having different geometric forms, such that when the pieces are interfitted in various ways, abstract figures are created whose configuration depend on how the pieces are interfitted.
Thus a Tangram puzzle consists of seven geometric pieces derived from a large square. A Tangram set is made up of two large triangles, two small triangles and a medium-sized triangle, plus a small square and a rhomboid. From these pieces the player is able to create figures that may be abstract or representational in form. In practice, the player can create silhouetted humanoid or animal-like figures in various postures as well as silhouetted bridges, houses or other architectural configurations.
Applicant's prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,200 (Kanbar) discloses a Tangram game assembly constituted by two sets of Tangram pieces capable of creating a variety of geometric or representational figures. Also included is a deck of cards, each having printed on its front face a Tangram puzzle figure, the solution to this puzzle being printed on the reverse face of the card. In play, a card is withdrawn from the deck and its front face presented to the players who with their respective sets of pieces then race to recreate the figure.
The Kanbar game assembly is housed in a case having a closed end and an open end, the case having a partition therein to define in conjunction with the closed end, a compartment to receive two sets of Tangram pieces, and to define in conjunction with the open end, a compartment to accommodate the deck of cards. A removable cover is provided which fits over the case, the cover having a closed end and an open end, the cover thereby locking in the card deck. In the playing mode, the cover position is reversed to expose one end of the card deck to permit withdrawal of cards therefrom one at a time. The cover also includes a transverse slot acting as socket for the withdrawn card so that the card may be presented in an upright position to the players.
A Tangram game is made up by two-dimensional flat pieces all occupying a common plane. The configuration of the abstract figures created by interfitting these pieces is also two-dimensional. A puzzle game in accordance with the invention is based on the art of cubism which originated in Paris in 1907. Cubism is represented in the works of such famous artists as Picasso and Braque. In cubism, a three-dimensional subject which can be a human figure, a landscape, a mandolin or any other subject, is fragmented and redefined within several interlocking planes to create a rigidly geometric abstract form free of curves.
Underlying the art of cubism is the geometry of a cube which is a solid bounded by six equal square faces whose adjacent faces are perpendicular to each other. Thus a three-dimensional cubist work of abstract sculpture appears to be largely composed of interlocking cubes.
In a cubist puzzle game in accordance with the invention, the player is provided with a set of play pieces each being a polycube piece formed by at least three like cubes joined together in a common plane to define the geometry of the pieces. Thus if the piece is formed by a row of three intermeshed cubes, with a fourth cube stacked above the third cube in the row and joined thereto, the piece will then have the geometry of an "L." But if the fourth cube is stacked above the second cube in the row and joined thereto, the piece will then have a T-shaped geometry.
The player is also provided with a deck of cards, each carrying on its front face a reproduction of a multi-planar cubist figure whose configuration is determined by the manner in which the polycube pieces of the set are interfitted. However in the reproduced figure, the cubes which constitute the figure all appear to be joined together. Hence the reproduced cubist figure does not reveal the interfitting relationship of the polycube pieces while together compose the figure. It is this interfitting relationship which constitutes the puzzle presented to the player.
In order therefore for a player to solve the puzzle, he must interfit the polycube pieces of the set so as to recreate the cubist figure displayed on the playing card. And he must succeed in doing so within specified time limits. A player, therefore, in order to succeed, must exercise his visual imagination in regard to geometric forms and how these forms develop different abstract cubist configurations, depending on how they are combined.
In a sense, a player of the cubist puzzle game is confronted with a problem similar to that faced by Michelangelo who sought to transmute a massive block of marble into a sculptured figure. Michelangelo is reputed to have remarked that this is an easy task, for the artist had only to imagine that a scultured figure is imprisoned within the block. All that is then necessary is for the artist to chisel away the marble to release the figure form the block.
But it is no easy task for a player of the cubist puzzle game, lacking Michelangelo's extraordinary imagination, to interfit the geometric pieces of the set to recreate an abstract cubist figure reproduced in a playing card. If therefore, the player fails in the attempt within specified time limits, he can then consult the rear face of the playing card which presents the solution to the puzzle, for it shows the relationship of the pieces and how they are to be interfitted to recreate the reproduced figure.
It is known in the prior art to provide a puzzle making use of interfitting polycube pieces. A puzzle of this type as indicated in the text "Creative Puzzles of the World" by Pieter Van Deft and Jack Botermans, was invented by the noted puzzles inventor Piet Hein, the puzzle being known as the SOMA CUBE.
A SOMA CUBE puzzle makes use of seven polycube pieces, each formed by three or four like cubes which are interconnected, some in a common plane, others in two planes, but in no instance in a straight line. Thus one piece is formed by first and second cubes in end-to-end relation and a third cube stacked above the first cube so that all cubes lie in a common plane. In another piece, first and second cubes are joined together in a horizontal plane, and third and fourth cubes are joined together in a vertical plane, the third cube being joined to the first cube to form a piece occupying two planes.
The polycube pieces of the SOMA CUBE can be interfitted by a player to create multi-planar cubical figures. One significant distinction between a SOMA CUBE and a cubist puzzle in accordance with the invention is that in the former the pieces are made up of polycubes some of which lie in a common plane and others in two planes, whereas in the latter cubes, which form the seven pieces, all lie in the same plane.
With a set of seven pieces in accordance with the invention, the pieces can be interfitted to create in the storage mode of the game a rectangular pad that can be seated in a cartridge. The seven pieces of the SOMA CUBE cannot be so interfitted.
Another distinction between a SOMA CUBE and a cubist puzzle in accordance with the invention is that the pieces of the former are formed by three and four cubes, whereas in the latter the pieces are formed of three, four and five cubes.